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Research and Sponsored Projects Manual (RSP)

RSP 107: Lead Unit
Identification and Responsibilities

Purpose

To define how the lead unit assigned to a sponsored project is
identified and outline the responsibilities of that lead unit

Sources

Office of the Provost of
the University

Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development (OKED)

Office for Research and Sponsored Projects
Administration (ORSPA)

Policy

Identification

The “lead” unit is the academic unit to which the
tenured or tenure-eligible principal investigator (PI)
is assigned. This unit is designated on the faculty or academic
professional’s Notice of Appointment or Joint Appointment.
The lead unit for a nonacademic university employee serving as PI
is the home department designated on his or her Hiring Process
Report (HPR).

When it is determined that a sponsored project is better served
by an alternate unit, including an Arizona
Board of Regents (ABOR)-approved center or institute, the
designation of the alternative lead unit must be approved by the
authorizing officials of the alternative lead unit, all units
participate on the sponsored project, and all units are designated
on the PI’s official appointment or hiring records.

Centers and institutes may be designated by the PI as an
alternate lead unit when a sponsored project spans more than one
disciplinary area and/or the researchers have an affiliation with
the center. The designation as lead unit allows the centers and
institutes to contribute toward multidisciplinary activity by
providing infrastructure, administrative support, and specialized
facilities unavailable in the academic units.

Responsibilities

The lead unit, designated on the Proposal Routing and Approval
Form, has oversight responsibility for the administrative and
financial actions of the PI, including:

approval of an academic employee as a PI by the department
chair (or unit director) and the dean (or division head) or
approval of a nonacademic employee as a PI by the unit director,
division head, and vice president

assistance with general administrative and financial project
management issues through the lead unit’s business staff or
responsible university administrative office, such as Human
Resources or Purchasing and Business Services

and

the timely provision of funding sources for any deficit on a
sponsored account, if the PI and/or org manager fail to provide an
alternative funding source for the deficit.

For more information on how RSP policies are implemented during
each phase of a project, see the ORSPA Web site.